The Vancouver Canucks are in Dallas to take on the Stars in what many expect to be Vitali Kravtsov’s first game in a Canucks uniform.

The Canucks traded for Kravtsov on Saturday, sending Will Lockwood and a seventh-round pick the New York Rangers’ way. The acquisition cost was pennies on the dollar, meaning this trade was certainly a win for the Canucks, with the potential to be a big win if the 23-year-old can put it all together and live up to his billing as the ninth overall pick from the 2018 Draft.

At 6’3, many people believed and hoped that Kravtsov could become a power forward at the NHL level, but through 48 career NHL games, the Russian winger has tallied just five goals and five assists. We broke down the number behind Kravtsov’s game further, and you can read that story by clicking here.

Here’s what else we’re expecting in tonight’s game.

Line rushes weren’t posted as very few media made the trip out to Dallas. But we did get some updates from Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy, who’s always going the extra mile to make sure Canucks fans are well-informed.

According to Murph, Kravtsov will play with Brock Boeser and Jack Studnicka tonight, while Thatcher Demko is considered a game-time decision.

Vitali Kravtsov spoke with media over Zoom this morning, and expressed his excitement to join the Canucks. Kravtsov’s agent Dan Milstein has six clients in the Canucks’ organization, and he’ll be more than comfortable having countrymen Andrei Kuzmenko and Vasily Pokdolzin up with the NHL club right now.

“I’m just so happy,” said Kravtsov. “I already spoke with the Russian guys here and they told me all the good stuff from Vancouver. It’s first day so it’s kind of hard to meet everybody… I know them from Russia, they helped me a lot the first day, they tried to do everything possible to make me feel comfortable here.”

“Yeah he was the first guy who called right after the trade,” Kravtsov said of Podkolzin. “I spoke with him a little bit and yeah, we played in Vancouver in the World Juniors together.”

Puck drop is at 5:30 Pacific tonight from Dallas.